Hello all! I'm back from Paris and my sister and I had a great time. We did sooo much during our time there that at the end of every day I wrote down a rough outline of what we did. Since my body is still on European time, I'm up quite early (woke up at 4:30 a.m.). I won't post much at the moment, but I wanted to get this started. Over the course of our stay there I shot 2 hours worth of video, hundreds of pictures, ate at least 5 different national cuisines, and visited 3 countries. During my lunch hour today I'll try to type up as much as possible, so until then stay tuned!

looking forward to it

Don't eat, just type!

ok, here is the first installment of my report. It's gonna sound a bit whingy/whiney at the start, but all the good fun I had on my trip far outweighed the blemishes. Read the below as humourus, not as venomous.

09/01 - The Journey begins / Address all complaints to...

My dear sister (to be referred to as DS) and I began our journey at the new International terminal at DFW. I really have to say that this new terminal is really GREAT! It's nicely laid out, good restaurants and a very open feeling about it. Boarding our BA flight went smoothly and I was able to take onboard this little bottle of saline solution due to my contacts (this was one of my concerns). When the boarding process began, the called for rows 35 and back. Now, if I hadn't changed our seats to row 34, we could have been in the first boarding party. Eh, oh well. My video screen in the headrest in front of me was a bit buggy, but I wasn't too bothered as I <b>tried</b> to get some sleep. I do stress tried because as I was in the middle section in an aisle seat - the plane was a 3 seat - 3 seat - 3 seat configuration - and 2 rows back on either side of me were screaming toddlers/infants. The earplugs I put in my ears were of little help as their wails seem to cut through them like a hot knife in butter. Oh, and the toddler to my left, his name was Noah because his parents kept saying his name quite a bit. Leaving the aircraft I jokingly said to my sister that I should go over to the now sleeping Noah, shake him awake and ask him if he had a comfortable trip over. Other than the toddlers, a little bit of turbulence but nothing to get worked up about.

The passport/immigration line at Gatwick for Non EU or UK residence wasn't that bad, even though it was quite a long line it moved at a good pace. The exchange rate for U.S. $ to UK pounds was (and probably still is) terrible. On Saturday it was $1.98 for 1 UK pound. Bleh! On to the Gatwick Express and into Victoria Station. From there it was a quick journey through the Underground to Waterloo to catch our 11:22 a.m. Eurostar to Paris. Now, the train journey would have been a pleasure except for 2 things: me feeling slightly bloated and this family of unknown European descent sitting across from us on the Eurostar. DS and I travelled Business class because for me this marked my 10 year anniversary travelling overseas. Why not celebrate in style? Anyways, we had the seat-table-seat configuration where one person faced backwards and the other forwards. The four seats and table across from us were empty, but this teenage girl went to the Eurostar person, flippity-flapped about seating and the next thing I knew she,her mom &amp; dad were now sitting across from us. This wouldn't have been problem if they a) wouldn't have been talking so loudly and b) if the girl had not decided to remove her nail polish and then put on a new coat of nail polish. Being in a fairly confined space while someone does this is not a pleasurable experience. I would hope that most people realise this. So, anyways, lunch was served and it was delicious...except with me feeling bloated and tired, I didn't get to eat all of it. I really was totally bummed out about that.

Our train arrived in Paris around 2:40 p.m. and we had no problem finding our hotel (Hotel Tourisme, 66 Avenue de la Motte-Picquet, PARIS 75015, France - Phone : +33 (0)1 47 34 28 01 Fax : +33 (0)1 47 83 66 54
Web site : www.france-hotel-guide.com/h75015tourisme.htm - Email : [email protected]). This hotel is in the 7th arr, but they listed themselves as being in the 15th arr. Whatever. The hotel is in a location I know very well and west across the street from it is the Monoprix. To the east and down the street is the Ecole Militaire. The hotel elevator is very, very small - so pretty much 1 person and their baggage. Our room was on the 1st floor and it was adequate enough - 2 single beds and a good sized bathroom. Even though our window (double glazed) faced the buildings to the east of us, you could still hear the rumblings of the above ground metro. After a day or two I sorta tuned that out. One thing we discovered was that we had no towels, so after we'd dumped our bags off and headed out, DS told the reception that we had no towels. Off we went to walk around Paris! The first thing we did was head to the Champs Elysees where as we were walking down from the Arc de Triomphe, we witnessed the start of a wreath laying ceremony. So we stood around where all these old men in uniforms were gathering, as well as a marching band, and waited for the procession to begin. I shot quite a bit of video of this as well as taking pictures. It was quite something to see them walk up the Champs Elysees with the band behind them. Unforgettable. After chasing after them to take pictures/shoot video, we resumed our walk. Every time I'm in Paris I have to head to the Virgin Megastore. It's a ritual for me. After that, we continued walking and then crossed over to head back up towards the Arc de Triomphe. Now, I'd been reading much about Laduree and even went to their website. Visions of me sinking my teeth into their macaroons was much on my mind. Since I didn't see Laduree on the way down on the one side of the street, I figured that they had to be on the other side. We stopped in and DS and I each got a box of 12 mini macroons each (they were in sort supply of the larger ones). Were they good? Yeah! But macroons do not a dinner make, so it was time to find somewhere to eat. Before heading off to dinner we made a call home to our mom to let her know we arrived safe and sound. Dinner was had at this Chinese restauant on Blvd. de Grenelle (can't recall the name - I know, for shame). I'd eaten there twice a couple of years ago with my nephew, so I thought it best to go somewhere I knew on this first day. After dinner we walked around a bit and then headed to the Monoprix where we each bought a bath towel and washclothes (we still had no idea if we'd have a towel and washcloth once we got back to our hotel), but once we arrived back at our room, we discovered that they'd given us towels &amp; washclothes. The towel did come in handy later on. Our first day officially over, it was time to hit the sack. Oh, even though we did not plan to watch much TV, the pickings were pretty slim, most of the channels were French, 2 - 3 were showing tennis, 1 was German, 1 was CNN International, and the other was a porn channel that came on in the evenings. What choices. End of day 1!

Off to a good start. Looking forward to the rest.

So far so good, keep going.

Nina

Last night I decided to transfer the video I had shot in Paris on to DVD. Things started out ok, but then to my horror I discovered that I'd somehow messed up on the recording/pausing of stuff, so I have about 15 minutes worth of ground shots of the sidewalk of the Champs Elysees! Wahhh!! I was totally gutted. There was some footage of the old soldiers and the marching band, but not the shots I wanted. Perhaps DS has some good video. Anyways, on to day 2!

- Sept 2nd. We have a fire! / Walk, Walk! -

Our first morning in Paris started on a hot note. While DS was in the bathroom getting ready, she had set her curling iron on this glass ashtray on top of the dresser. As I was gathering things up and getting ready, this pungent smell wafted around in the air. It smelled like something burning, but what? That's when I heard this noise and looked over at the curling iron. The handle of the curling iron had hit the glass counter of the dresser and I noticed the heating element inside of the iron was glowing red hot and then burst into flames! I called out frantically to DS, still in the bathroom, to come out. I grabbed the handle and started to blow the fire out. Luckily no damage was caused, but it sure did stink in the bedroom. I opened the window for a few minutes to let it clear out and DS went back to the bathroom. DS probably didn't realise that her curling iron was not multi voltage (like my electric shaver), despite her having a plug adapter.

When we left the hotel for the day, there was an outdoor market going on underneath the above ground metro on Blvd. de Grenelle. Super! I love when these markets are going on...the smell of the fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. The market stretched for quite a ways, so we walked from one end to the other and back. As we got to the one end of the market, we found this vendor who was selling various types of wine from regions in France. Knowing that one of my objectives was to bring back at least one bottle of wine, I selected this white Reisling wine (something like 6 - 11 Euros). After completing the market circuit, it was a quick trip back to the hotel to put the wine in the room and back out.

As this Sunday was the first Sunday of the month, all the museums are free. As DS really wanted to go to the Louvre, that's where we went. Our visited started with the gardens near Place de la Concorde. From there we walked towards the Louvre. This was my second time in the Louvre - the first being 2 years ago with my nephew. It's such an overwhelming experience when you go through there...so much artwork to absorb. I know there was stuff we didn't get to see, but it really was crowded that day. There was stuff I hadn't seen before, so that was a plus. After the Louvre, we rested a bit on the outside not too far from the glass pyramid. From there we walked through the one arched entry into the courtyard, then hung a right to go through the other arched entry that lead you out towards this footbridge that crossed the Seine and in to the Latin Quarter. Then the rain started to come down. Luckily it was a light rain that came and went. Our walk along the Seine took us to Notre Dame. Unfortunately it was closed that day due to a swearing in ceremony of some public official. We hung around Notre Dame a bit, watching this guy feed all these sparrows that were perched in all the small bushes around the area, then it was back across the bridge to the Latin Quarter.

We wandered through the narrow streets of Rue de la Huchette, Rue Saint-Severin and Rue de la Harpe - these places were buzzing with activity. I'd never been in this particular area of the Latin Quarter, so it was a new experience for me. The weather was starting to warm up, so it was time to cool down with a nice coconut with chocolate chips gelato! Yum!! Where to go next? DS suggested Sacre Coeur, so off we went. Down in the Metro I did something really dumb. As we'd gone through the turnstile, realised that I didn't know which line we needed to take, so I exited to go read the Metro map. When I tried to go back through, the turnstile wouldn't let me. I then asked DS for hers and the same thing happened. A flash of panic went through me. Were our tickets no good anymore? I pressed the &quot;assistance&quot; button and was told that we should go &quot;x&quot; amount of meters to the next Metro entrance. DS suggested that maybe there was some sort of time limit on when you could use our ticket again (we bought the 5 day Paris Visit ticket) - that seemed to be the case as when we got to the other turnstile, we got through.

After changing lines a few times, we were now at Sacre Couer. To give our feet a rest, we took the funicular up to SC. Before we entered SC, we spent a bit outside just admiring the view of Paris on this sunny day. There were lots of people up around this area either sitting on the steps or on the grass. I've never quite understood this, so maybe someone can explain, but why can't you take pictures or shoot video inside of SC? Anyways, when we left the church it was time to explore the Montmarte area. I was trying to find the Moulin Rouge, but I think it was down a couple of stops from the Metro stop we got off at. It was around this time that our feet and legs were aching, so it was back to the hotel to rest for awhile.

What shall we do for dinner tonight? I really hadn't a clue. We walked along Blvd. de Grenelle as I was sure something would pop out at us. Nothing really did, but we went down this one side street and saw this restaurant called PastaPapa (http://www.pastapapa.fr/ - you may have to look at the cached version of it as it wouldn't load properly for me). Ok, hey, it was a chain restaurant but when your stomach is doing the talking, don't argue too much. The one we at at was the Pastapapa Grenelle on 7 rue de Lourmel - 75015 (Metro Dupleix). The food was decent and I had the ravioli (it was quite a huge dish of it as well), a Coke light, some evian and this fudge cake for dessert. Oddly enough, this restaurant is right across the street from the Timhotel my nephew and I stayed at back in 2004. With dinner over and feeling full, we made a quick stop at the minimart across from the restaurant to buy some water. Back at the hotel some more resting took place while watching a French dubbed version of &quot;Some Like It Hot&quot;. I had suggested to DS that we head towards the Ecole Militaire around 9:40 p.m. to catch the twinkling of the Eiffel Tower, to which she said that sounded like a good plan. We made to the Peace Monument in time to catch the 10 p.m. sparkling effect. I love to see the Eiffel Tower do that. I'd say we spent a good half an hour around that area just enjoying the area, watching the people who were on the grass enjoy their wine or whatever. It was a moment that makes me realise why I love Paris so much! From there it was back to the hotel where we finished watching &quot;Some Like It Hot&quot; and then to sleep. Sunday is next!

I don't think I had quite recovered from jetlag over the past few days. This morning I was rifling through my notes, wondering where my Sunday journal entry was. It then dawned on me that We left on Friday 9/1 and that my first entry should have been Friday 9/1 / Saturday 9/2. So, that being said, my previous entry should have been dated 9/3 which is a Sunday. Right, so that's sorted out. On to Monday!

- Sept. 3rd. From drizzly to sunny and from east to west.

Monday morning started out on a cloudy, drizzly note. The rain was almost like a light misting, so it wasn't one of these run for cover situations. After we had left the hotel, we stopped by the bakery next door so I could get my pain au chocolat. This would pretty much become a daily morning ritual for me. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe. We arrived there quite early, too early to walk up to the top. I wouldn't have had any problem going up those stairs, but DS wasn't too keen on the amount of stairs you had to go up, especially since the staircase is quite a tight one. Add to that the rain and we nixed the idea. Before we headed to our next destination, a quick stop was made at the hotel to change out batteries in my digital camera. Now, Where to go on a rainy and overcast day? Why, Pere Lachaise Cemetery of course! Of course, I would have gone there if the sun had been shining (which it eventually began to do when we finished up at the cemetery). This was my third time to visit the cemetery. It's such a serene place. You have to wonder if any of the people buried there still have family in the area. What upsets me most about the cemetery is some of the broken stain glass windows on the crypts and some vandalism I saw. Anyways, we covered quite a bit of ground in the cemetery, saw some of the famous names buried there and even stopped by Jim Morrisons grave. A couple of hours or so spent there and it was time to go. We made a quick stop at one of the pastry places nearby and then we headed west.

Our next destination was the Palais Garnier et de l'Op&eacute;ra bastille or the Opera. I'd only been to that area twice (to go into the Amex office), but I'd never gone into the Opera building. We weren't able to go into the auditorium due to rehearsals, but we did get to check out quite a few other places in the building. Talk about an impressive staircase! One can only imagine those attending the opera all dressed up and mingling on the staircase. Up on the second level is this huge room with a fireplace at each end. At first I thought you couldn't go into this room, but it turns out that at each end of the room the doors are open. I don't think we spent too long in the building. Is it worth visiting? Yeah. I just wish the auditorium had been open. From there we headed south to Notre Dame.

Our second attempt to visit Notre Dame was a success. It's amazing to see the front of the church all cleaned up now. I have pictures of it in the various stages of clean up, so it really is something to behold. DS and I had thought about going up to the top, but the line was too long, so after we had gone through the church, we sat on a bench in the garden behind ND and rested a bit. My feet and shins were killing me! Usually the amount of walking we had done since our arrival in Paris wouldn't have bothered me, but this time around my feet were hurtin'. The next destination was the Arch of the Defense. Now, I know some people may not find going out there to be interesting, but I think it is. The arch is an impressive structure and the area with its wide open space, shops and some new art sculptures does make it worth a visit. Currently there are these (what appear to be) stainless steel sculptures in front of the arch. DS and I did go to the top to see all over Paris and beyond. After some picture taking, we went back down and just sat on the steps of the arch for a bit to people watch. We discussed where we should go for dinner. So far we'd done Chinese and Italian. What should we have now? French? Nah...wasn't quite ready for that. Instead, I pulled out all these bits of paper I'd printed off from the Fodor's forum and suggested a place that aucho53 had gone to - <b>Les Argonautes</b>. Aucho53 made the place sound <b><i>so irresistible</i></b> that I really wanted to go there - so, back to the Latin Quarter we went!

We did make it to the Latin Quarter, despite us getting off a stop too soon. Finding the restaurant wasn't too difficult since I'd printed off a map of it's location, not to mention dragging my 10 year old Michelin road map of Paris along with me as well! I've taken that map with me every time I've gone to Paris and it's kinda starting to fall apart. DS and I made our way to the restaurant and while we were outside just looking at their menu, the guy outside started pitching the restaurant to us. Before I knew it, he was leading us in to be seated! We were there quite early, so the place wasn't full. The concept of eating late, say around 8 p.m., isn't something I'm use to. Both of us were served a complimentary glass of a rose wine (which was pretty darn good), 2 bottles of water and a basket of a baguette that had been cut into smaller pieces. For an appetizer we had the fried calamari and let me tell you something, they were huge!! They looked like onion rings, but it was deep fried calamari with this sauce. Yum! For dinner I got the Keftedes - minced meat (essentially what looked like 2 thick hamburger patties) that came with a baked potato seasoned with olive oil and herbs. I skipped dessert as dinner stuffed me quite well. Would I recommend this restaurant to others? Definitely! After dinner we walked around the 6th arr. for a bit, making our way up towards the Medieval Museum and then back down to Notre Dame a bit before 9 p.m. so we could watch this film about the church. The film was about an hour or so long and an interesting look into why/how the church was built. Once the film was over, we headed back to the hotel and to bed. Tomorrow would be a busy day!

Argh! Still not quite over jetlag. Ok, my last entry above <b>should</b> be dated Sept. 4th as it was Monday, not the 3rd!

Hi Trafaelwyr! We were in Paris at the same time! I was there 9/1 - 9/6, then to Brugge for 2 nights and back to Paris 9/8 - 9/11. We probably crossed paths. I'm enjoying your report!

heya cls2paris. Wasn't the weather during that time pretty good? It was such a relief to get out of the 90 to 100 degree temps here in Texas. What all did you do while you were in Paris?

Here's how our Tuesday went.

- Sept. 5th - It's Good To Be Da King/The Statue of Liberty -

Today was our visit to Versailles. We hopped on the Metro for a quick ride to the Bir Hakeim stop and then down to the RER where we bought a train/Versailles combo pass (I highly recommend). Paying heed to all the guidebooks and to those who've been there before, we got there early to avoid the tour groups. The weather was good...a bit warm...and I got to see parts of the palace that I'd not seen before. The only real let down of the visit was that the fountains were not on. I'm not sure what the reason was...I thought maybe it was due to drought. As we walked around the large fountain, we noticed people in these golf carts tooling around the grounds. These were obviously people that didn't work there but tourists. So we headed down towards the place where you could rent boats and wound up renting one of the golf carts! It costs about 28 Euros to do so and make sure you have your drivers license if you want to do it. They show you how to operate the cart and the recorded audio tour that goes with it. There's also a map they give you that you need to follow or else your cart will stall out and this voice will tell you that you've left the designated trail. Anyways, it takes you out to the Trianon and the Petit Trianon, so that really saves on the walking to those places! If you do decide to walk, they have signs indicating approximately how long it will take you by foot. There's also this little train/tram that will take you out to those places (but I think the cost is like 5-8 Euros). Once we'd finished tooling around in the golf cart, we stopped off at La Flottille (a restaurant, brasserie, tea room, takeaway) at the edge of the Grand Canal for lunch. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it did fit the bill. After lunch, we walked around the gardens some more and then hopped on the train back to Paris.

DS and I were going to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower once we got back, but the lines were hideously long, so we pushed that back for another day. I did stop at one of the ice-cream places and get me a swirl of chocolate and vanilla. Can some one please tell me what's up with all those girls around the Eiffel Tower who come up to you and ask you if you speak English? At first I would just shake my head and move on, then it got to the point that I just told them, &quot;Nope, I don't speak any at all.&quot; I'm assuming they're gypsies? We headed back to the hotel to drop off some of the souvenirs we bought and then walked up the Blvd. de Grenelle to Pont de Bir Hakeim. At the middle of the bridge you can walk down to the Alle des Cygnes - it's this long &quot;jetty&quot; of sorts in the middle of the Seine that goes from Pont de Bir Hakeim to Pont de Grenelle. What's cool about this is that on the other side of Pont de Grenelle is the Statue of Liberty! Well, not a full size replica, but a scaled down model. I remember seeing this over 20 years ago in the Harrison Ford film &quot;Frantic&quot;. I was surprised to see that there was a Statue of Liberty in Paris, so this time around I was able to make my way to it. From there we headed south on Pont de Grenelle trying to find a Metro stop. My feet were <i>really</i> hurtin' bad around this point. We wound up back at our hotel and rested a bit. It was at this point I told DS that I needed some new shoes. I hadn't seen a Foot Locker during our wanderings (despite seeing posters for it), so up and off we went to the Champs Elysees. Again, I utilized some info from a Fodor's poster (Aucho53) and looked for the Nike store. At this point, I didn't care how much the shoes cost, I just needed a comfortable pair because I had blisters on my 2 far right toes! The guy in the store was helpful and 100 Euros later I had a good pair of shoes. I should have changed shoes in the store, but I walked a bit outside, trying to find an empty bench to do it on. No luck with finding a bench, I decided to go to this bus stop on a side street and change. What was kinda funny about this is that there were all these police men around. I think there was some sort of premiere going on at one of the theaters on the Champs Elysees. Anyways, DS told me later that the police men were a bit bemused by my shoe changing episode. With new shoes on, we walked back down the Champs Elysees looking for a place to eat. We looked at a few different places, but couldn't make our minds up, so we headed back to our area as it was getting a bit late and settled upon American food - McDonalds. I love the mayonaise that you get over in the McDonalds in Europe. Too bad you can't get them here. With dinner done, it was back to the hotel and to bed.

I'm enjoying your report, t.

Hi trafaelwyr - I thought the weather at the beginning of the trip was a little hot and humid and was glad that the hotel had a/c so we could sleep. So I guess it depends on your perspective! I'm working on my trip report and will get it posted in a few days. I'm enjoying yours!

Thanks to all who are enjoying my trip report. It's not littered with too much wit and humour, nor too many specific details. There's just so much that we did and saw that I'm sure this report would be 2 or 3 times longer than what it is. The main thing is that we had a good time. As long as you can come away from a trip with that feeling, then it was worth it.

Cls2paris - yeah, you know, my sister thought it was a bit humid there, but I really didn't notice. Our hotel had air conditioned rooms as well. Since my sister likes the 'cold', our thermostat was set around 18-20 degrees celsius! Mind you, it did feel good to enter the room at various points in the day with that feeling. Where 'bouts in Paris were you staying?

Hi - we stayed 5 nights at Hotel Monge and 3 nights at Hotel Muguet. I liked both hotels and enjoyed staying in new areas. I usually stay in St. Germain or Marais. Hopefully my trip report will be as informative as yours!

oh, I think you have tons of specific details, which is good for a lot of people. I know what you mean about the nail polish on the train -- I've had girls do that when sitting next to me on an airplane, and I nearly got sick, literally. The smell is just nauseating and chemically not good in such an environment.

FYI, you were staying in the 15th arrondisement, that hotel is in the 15th (I've seen it and know where it is). No hotel would probably list its postal code wrong and wouldn't want to say they were in the 15th rather than the 7th (which is generally more upscale). The 7th arr. stops at ave de Suffren, which runs alongside the public area of the Ecole Militaire, and UNESCO.

cls2paris - hmm, where 'bouts is Hotel Monge and Hotel Muguet? This is the website for the hotel we stayed in: http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/h75015tourisme.htm. The next time I go back to Paris, I might opt to rent an apartment and try to get one in the Latin Quarter - or anywheres between there and the 15th.

Christina - luckily that's never happened to me on a plane! That did happen to me on the light rail service that we have in Dallas and now I had it happen on the Eurostar. Oh well. And you're absolutely right about a hotel and listing it's postal code. I thought it was in the 7th, thinking that the metro line served as a boundary...but whatever, it was still a good hotel and I really liked the area.

I can tell you why Notre Dame was closed the first time you went -- the mayor of Paris was inaugurating the new name of the square in front of the cathedral : &quot;Place Jean Paul II&quot;.

Glad you got some new shoes. Hope they were better. I was feeling your pain. I was in Las Vegas some years ago and wore a pair of boots that I had had for a long time and never had given me a bit of trouble, but for some reason my feet were killing me!!!! Every step was torture..I do NOT exagerate. I finally found a pair of black Keds..OMG...it wanted to kiss them!!!! What a difference!!!! It's just HORRIBLE to have your feet hurting, it takes the joy out of the whole trip. Wonderful, fun report. Love your detail.

Trafaelwyr -
Hotel Monge is in the Latin Quarter on Rue Monge. The rear rooms overlook the Arenes de Lutece. We spent 5 nights there. The hotel was very nice, if I were to stay in LQ again, I would stay here. I think the room was 106 euros for a double.

Hotel Muguet is in th 7th, near the La Tour-Maubourg metro stop. I would stay here again also if I stay in the 7th again. The room was 125 euros for a double.